Bret Payseur
Bret Payseur founded the group in 2005. Bret received a bachelor’s degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and anthropology from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He studied evolutionary biology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, where he acquired a master’s degree. Bret earned a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Bret is motivated by the thrill of discovery in science and the prospect of sharing it with students.
Peicheng Jing
Peicheng is a data scientist whose research focuses on population genetics on the genomic scale. He is currently examining patterns of genome sequence variation in house mice to characterize colonization history and localize targets of directional selection in the context of the island rule.
Mark Nolte
Mark is an assistant scientist whose research emphasizes the genetics of complex trait evolution. He is currently using congenic strains, dense phenotyping, and genomic profiling of gene expression to discover how house mice evolved exceptional body sizes in an instance of the island rule.
Emma Howell
Emma is a graduate student whose research concentrates on population genetics on the genomic scale. She is currently using genome sequence variation to reveal the demographic histories, genomic targets of selection, and distribution of fitness effects of mutations in island populations of white-footed mice and deer mice.
Will Spurley
Will is a graduate student whose research focuses on the role of the breeding sex ratio in population genetics. Will is currently using simulations to understand how the breeding sex ratio affects genomic patterns of variation.
Elsa Luebke
Elsa is a new graduate student who is currently designing her dissertation project.
Maddie Michaelis
Maddie is an undergraduate student whose research targets behavioral evolution in house mice from an isolated island.
Current Collaborators
Karl Broman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lauren Nolfo-Clements, Suffolk University
Leslie Turner, University of Bath
Frank Chan, Friedrich Miescher Laboratory (Max Planck)
Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard University
Jeremy Searle, Cornell University
Alumni
Alexandre Blanckaert, postdoctoral scholar. Currently postdoctoral fellow, University of Lisbon.
Lauren Brooks, PhD student.
Amy Dapper, postdoctoral fellow. Currently associate professor, Mississippi State University.
Beth Dumont, PhD student. Currently associate professor, Jackson Laboratory.
Megan Frayer, PhD student. Currently NSF postdoctoral fellow, Yale University.
Melissa Gray, postdoctoral fellow. Currently associate director of research and development, Exact Sciences.
Ryan Haasl, PhD student. Currently professor, University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
John Hvala, PhD student.
Michael Kartje, PhD student. Currently, computational biologist, Roche.
Michelle Parmenter, PhD student. Currently program director, SciMedGRS, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
April Peterson, PhD student.
Michael Place, programmer analyst. Currently research scientist, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jered Stratton, PhD student. Currently research scientist, University of Pittsburgh.
Leslie Turner, postdoctoral fellow. Currently lecturer, University of Bath.
Richard Wang, PhD student. Currently postdoctoral fellow, Indiana University.
Michael White, PhD student. Currently associate professor, University of Georgia.
